Improvement in bridges



' N4 PETERS. PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON. D C.

UNr'rED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS W. H. MOSELEY, OF BOSTON, MASSAOHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN BFRIDGES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 59,054, datedI October 2.3, 1866.

To all it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS W. H. MOSE- LEY, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Wrought Iron Trusses for Bridges, and I do hereby declare the saine to be fully described in the following specication and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure l is a perspective view of a bridgespan made with two of my improved trusses. Fig. 2 is a transverse section ot' it. Fig. 3 is a perspective representation of one end of the truss, with its shoe and the adjusting-rods and nuts applied thereto. Fig. 4 is anot-her end view ofthe truss, without the tlange-platcs.

In the drawings, A denotes a girder, to be made of plate-iron, and to have the Jform of the segment of a circle or an ellipse, or an approximation thereto. A long strip of metal, B, which I term the chord, is laid along the chord of the said girder, and connected thereto by bolts b b b going through the two, and a series of hangers, a ct a, arranged against the inner face of the girder and projecting below it. In the formation of a bridge these hangers go down through the series of )floor-timbers c c e, which connect the trusses of the span, and serve to support the iiooring-planks d, the Hoor-timbers being held in connection with the hangers by screws and nuts applied to the lower ends of such hangers, they being shown at e c in Fig. 2.

To projecting parts f j', at the ends of the arched-plate girder A, rectangular strengthening-plates g g are riveted, the said plates heilig placediiatwise against the girder-plate. There is also riveted to each side of the arched girder and along its arc an angle iron tlan ge, O.,

shaped in cross-section as represented in Fig. 2, the rivets for holding the iianges to the girder being shown at i i in Figs. 2 and 3.

At each toe or end of the truss is a shoe, D, consisting of a sheet of plate-metal bent at a rightangle. These shoes rest on the abutlnents or pieces E E, and each is secured to the truss by two bolts, 7c k, which are connected v to the truss, and extend from it in opposite di- 'constructed atvery little expense in comparison to what is frequently expended for trusses of a like span.

I claim as my inventionl. The improved truss, as composed ofthe arched plate A, thechord B, and theiiangesb` O, or the same and the end strengthening-plates 2. The combination ot' the shoes D D, and their adjusting screw-bolts k 7c and nuts l l, with the truss made of the arched plate A, the chord B, and the flanges O G, or the same and. the strengthening-plates g g, the whole being arranged substantially as described.

THOS. W. H. MOSELEY.

Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, F. P. HALE, Jr. 

